


The Sky is Blue (For Now)

by anticyclone



Series: Take A Chance On Me [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, First Meeting, Garden of Eden, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 10:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19721794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticyclone/pseuds/anticyclone
Summary: Crawly had wanted more time with the plants, but the animals had been his assignment. So he was intensely familiar with each and every one of them, which was why he didn't have to turn his head to know that the rapidly approaching flap of wings belonged to a swan. Or to know that this swan was not one ofhisswans.





	The Sky is Blue (For Now)

Crawly was intensely familiar with every animal in Eden. He had only been here for a few days, and the animals even less, but at the moment 'day' had a flexible definition.

He’d circumnavigated the Garden a hundred times over. He had basked on rocks and swum through streams. He'd tasted air that smelled of honeysuckle and he knew each of the fish, the cats great and small, the hundreds of thousands of beetles that neither Man nor Woman had even yet begun to name.

Right now he was standing on the wall watching them leave. The Woman and the Man, not the beetles, although he suspected that most of the animals were going to follow. There had been orders to seal all the gates up but that hadn't been Crawly's job. He had the feeling that there was a gap somewhere. Otherwise he wouldn't be watching Adam and Eve getting stalked across the dunes by a lion who had to be wondering where all the plants had gone.

He sighed, softly. He did like the plants. He was going to miss them.

Crawly had wanted more time with the plants, but the animals had been his assignment. So he was intensely familiar with each and every one of them, which was why he didn't have to turn his head to know that the rapidly approaching flap of wings belonged to a swan. Or to know that this swan was not one of _his_ swans.

White feathers appeared in the corner of his eye and melted into a human-shaped figure just in time for it to stop short of falling off the edge of the wall. It kept the wings. They were really magnificent wings. The swans would've been fiercely jealous.

Crawly and the demon stood there, silently, for a long moment. In the distance Eve and Adam were making their way toward an oasis.

Finally the demon said, "I like the hair."

It was really amazing how much a person could refrain from flushing when he concentrated very hard on the fact that, technically, he did not have a heart or blood unless he particularly needed them. "Have… we met?" he asked, clearing his throat.

Of course they hadn't met. Crawly had seen the swan around and knew it wasn't his, or Hers, but they hadn't actually interacted. It was a stupid question. Some people - Gabriel - would say that a lot of Crawly's questions were stupid questions, but mostly he managed to not say them out loud. No one had Fallen since _the_ Fall, but Crawly had learned to be careful about when, exactly, he asked questions.

"Aziraphale," the demon said. He had both hands clasped together behind his back and was watching Crawly with dark eyes. His hair was the same white as his wings, and his robe was nearly identical to Crawly's, except the fabric was gray, and he wore a black wrap around his shoulders.

"Crawly," Crawly replied, thinking but not saying that - well - Hadn't all the demons gotten new names, after?

Aziraphale raised an eyebrow. He apparently thought and decided to say out loud, "Unusual name. For an angel."

"They did give me a sword, you know," Crawly said, casually.

"Really?" A bright smile lit up Aziraphale's face, genuine delight crinkling the corners of his eyes. Crawly nearly staggered. There was Morningstar light in that smile. "Where is it, then?"

Crawly pressed his lips together.

Aziraphale suddenly seemed closer even though his feet hadn't moved. He had a sidling kind of air to him, Crawly supposed. Their wings weren't touching, but Crawly folded his in a little all the same. The fact that it gave him a better view of immaculately groomed feathers was an unfortunate and unavoidable coincidence.

"Did you forget it somewhere?" Aziraphale asked. His dark eyes were moving up and down Crawly like he really believed he might spot the sword at some point. "I could help you look. If you wanted."

Now that was ridiculous. "I don't need help," he said, crisply. After a second he added, "Especially not from a demon."

"Thought I would offer," Aziraphale said. He somehow sounded wounded and Crawly laced his fingers together in front of himself to avoid the urge to reach out. Then the emotion vanished from the demon's voice and he wondered if it had just been an affectation after all. "I think they'll be all right, you know. If you were concerned."

"I don't know if I want to know your definition of all right," Crawly said.

The Garden swayed behind them. A cool wind was blowing in. The first cool wind. It promised storms for ages.

"Oh, I talked to them a bit. Well. Her. She seemed bright enough."

Crawly rather hoped so, given what he himself had done. Or hadn't done. Or had carefully, coincidentally, chosen to put off doing until later.

Technically he was supposed to keep the sword stored somewhere metaphysical while he was in snake form, but sometimes he also left it lying on rocks in plain view of as-yet-unbricked Garden gates and then curled up on the next rock over. In case the sight of a nine-foot-long red bellied snake was off putting. And then sometimes he napped. Snakes needed sleep, even if angels didn't. And sometimes snakes napped with their eyes half open.

Of course if they didn't it wasn't as if Eve or Adam would have known. After they'd left he'd slithered back over to the first rock to retrieve and properly store the weapon. Only there had been no sword. The angel at the gate had only had the one, too. Crawly had asked, in a very 'we're all coworkers here' way.

"Maybe you shouldn't have," he managed to say.

They'd already looked terrified, even before spotting him, even before spotting the sword.

"I was told to make some trouble. Messing with perfection, that's my job. It's hardly my fault if there was a forbidden apple tree ten paces from where they normally slept," Aziraphale said. He still hadn't moved and still somehow seemed closer than he had when he'd first landed. "They would have found it on their own eventually."

The wind picked up a little. Crawly folded his wings around himself slightly, trying to brace against it. His hair, held back by two small braids, rippled. He had the distinct impression that Aziraphale was staring at it but was determined not to check. He didn’t ever remember feeling stalked by a swan, while he was a snake, but his other form did change his perception somewhat.

"I don't know about that."

"Stands to reason. Only so many trees. They would have investigated at some point. Apples are tempting all on their own."

Crawly frowned. "Not everyone has trouble following directions."

"Like keeping track of flaming swords?" Aziraphale asked, the picture of innocence. That really should not have been possible but his face just somehow seemed built for it. The Fall could only change so much, Crawly guessed.

Then he realized that not only had he turned to look, but he was staring. He turned away at the moment that the corner of Aziraphale's mouth started to curl. "If you must know," he said, wings bristling, "it's - it's bloody difficult, carrying a sword around as a snake. I put it down for a moment. I'll pick it up later. I hardly need it now."

Now Aziraphale _did_ take a decidedly sidling step towards him. Crawly inhaled. And when Crawly breathed in, he tasted things. Aziraphale tasted distinctly of honeyed air and a threatening storm.

"There is a demon next to you," Aziraphale murmured. "Are you sure?"

Crawly did his best impression of a sneer, borrowed straight from Gabriel, who'd invented them. "Maybe I just see a swan with pretentions."

Aziraphale _laughed_ , and Crawly's stomach dropped as all the blood that was not in his body threatened to rush into his face. And perhaps other places. He concentrated very hard on not having any blood until Aziraphale finished laughing. It was a soft, ringing laugh, and the part of Crawly that grew scales and rested on sunny rocks was tempted to bask in it.

Tempted. Demon. Right.

"They will be all right because the Almighty wouldn't have it otherwise," he made himself say, with a pointed look at Adam and Eve. They were closer to the oasis, now. They'd spot it in the next half hour or so.

Of course the lion was also closer, by less than half an hour.

"Wouldn't they still be in here if that was the case?"

"The Almighty's plan is vast and ineffable," Crawly said, in the tone he would've used to point out that the sky was blue.

"The plan to put humanity right next to the Tree of Knowledge and then tell them not to touch it? Hardly seems fair. After all we went through you'd think She'd give them more of a sporting chance."

"Sometimes when you don't understand something it's best to wait it out and see."

He had, once. It turned out that going to put the finishing touches on a nebula and worry about things in the privacy of his own head had been the correct move. When he'd gotten back, the forces of Heaven had been halved, and the place still felt empty.

It was part of why he'd agreed to monitor the animals even though it had been a mildly unpleasant surprise to find that on Earth, apparently, he was sometimes a snake. In retrospect his name had made sense instead of just a pleasant sound. And, somewhat to his horror, he'd been granted a gold mark for his service. It was a tiny serpent tattoo on his temple and he was glad that Aziraphale was on his left, where he wouldn't be able to see it.

The demon let out a disagreeing noise but didn't actually say anything.

They stood there watching Adam and Eve continue on in the distance and the lion creep ever closer. Crawly watched them with increasing anxiety and an inability to stop focusing on the fact that right now, the sky was actually gray. He felt a cool drop of rain on his skin and inhaled.

"Does Adam have a flaming sword?" Aziraphale suddenly asked.

It was easy to see, now that Adam had taken it out of its sheath and was fending the lion off with it. Crawly had usually kept the sword sheathed because otherwise the animals got curious about it. It smelled like him, and he talked to them, so they wanted to poke at it. A mongoose had singed its whiskers on it once and he suspected he would never stop hearing about that.

Crawly stared as Eve backed up and Adam swung the sword as if he'd been taking lessons in the holy firmament with the rest of them.

"Maybe," he said, looking down as the lion fell.

"Fancy that. I guess they might make it through the night after all."

"Some of us should," Crawly said, glumly. He wondered if the angel at the gate could see it, too. Or if the Almighty had noticed yet.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as all that." When Crawly raised his head Aziraphale was watching him again. Like it was the first time they had looked at each other. He added, "You probably can't even do something bad. You know. Being you."

"Can't I?" Crawly murmured, eyes on Aziraphale's gray robe, his black shawl.

Aziraphale blinked, startled, and his lips parted for a moment before he responded. "Well. You doing something bad. That'd be like me doing something good."

"Weren't you just telling me that the humans were going to taste the apple sooner or later?" Crawly asked. "Maybe they'll just get to blame it all on you, now."

"Ha. Maybe that was part of the plan."

They both stared at each other and then laughed. It was the first laugh Crawly'd had in what felt like ages. (Sometimes it seemed like Lucifer had taken all the funny ones with him.) He couldn't stop himself from grinning and briefly ducked his head. Another raindrop hit his hair.

His mood crashed with it. "That really isn't funny," he said, all the laughter gone from his breath.

Aziraphale grimaced. "I suppose not."

The sand in front of the garden began to grow dark. There was a new sound, too. Rain was all so new. It was louder than he'd expected. The cloud just above them rolled and a thin gray sheet of air rippled overhead.

Sighing, Crawly rolled his shoulders back. If one of his wings happened to stretch with him, and if Aziraphale happened to be under it, well.

It was just coincidence.


End file.
